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On Thursday, January 30, several media outlets drew an association between Elon Musk and Wednesday's plane crash. Their reports claimed that Musk pushed the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) chief to resign before the incident.
A tweet about the FAA being leaderless after Musk pushed out its administrator - was uploaded by Senator Chris Murphy on Friday morning. It has since gone viral, receiving more than 190K views, 7K likes, and 3K re-tweets.
Netizens have been reacting to it, with one of them commenting:
"I think I see 67 lawsuits coming..."
Some netizens accused Murphy of spreading misinformation, claiming that the Reagan Airport had been understaffed for two years:
"Don't just spew disinformation - tell the ENTIRE story - Reagan airport has been understaffed since 2023 and even the FAS Union says so!!" - commented an X user.
"The supervisor allowed one of them to leave early, Chris. I checked and you don’t seem to have corrected this, instead leaving up the implication that they didn’t have the staffing to fully manage the tower because of Trump somehow. Weird" - added another.
"and in 8 days, that resulted in the crash? try again" - wrote another user.
"So you're saying that by removing one person in charge caused this to happen ? That nobody in the tower or the pilots in either the plane or the Blackhawk were capable of not avoiding this crash because the head of the FAA was removed ? Also you know that the aviation safety committee only advised the TSA on counter terrorism measures to keep airlines and airports safe from threats of terrorism. The safety committee has nothing to do with keeping planes safe in the air." - replied a user.
Meanwhile, others speculated if the plane crash could have actually been caused due to an "oversight" at the Trump administration's end.
"At this rate, there will be very little government oversight and regulations. Regulations are guardrails that keep public transportation, health and food safe. Trump's administration makes Americans less safe. Trump fired FAA administrator on his first day in office." - suggested another one.
"Well, simply put, MIMICKING common responses from TRUMP & MAGA of ANY of the past tragedies: "This happened UNDER Trump & SecDef's Watch. This is a COMPLETE FAILURE of the Trump Administration". They CANNOT have it BOTH WAYS!" - wrote a netizen.
Per NY Post's January 30 report, Michael Whitaker - the FAA Chief - resigned from his position 10 days before the deadline plane crash over Washington, DC. Whitaker announced his decision to step down after President Trump was sworn in, leaving the FAA without a leader "in a time of virtually unprecedented disaster for the agency," the article mentioned.
It added that Musk - a close Trump advisor and head of DOGE - had called for "Whitaker's ouster" after the chief had proposed over $600,000 in fines for his aerospace firm, SpaceX.
No survivors are expected from the Wednesday plane crash
Social media outrage followed the NY Post's recent article about a crash on Wednesday involving a plane with 64 passengers and an army helicopter with three people onboard. The collision happened near Washington DC's Ronald Reagan Airport, causing both aircraft to crash into the Potomac River, according to BBC.
While the number of victims hasn't been determined at the moment, the officials do not believe there are any survivors from the plane crash, per the news outlet. So far, 27 bodies have been recovered from the plane, and one from the helicopter.
According to the US Figure Skating, figure skaters from both Russia and the US were among the 64 passengers. The organization said that the group on board comprised athletes, coaches, and family members who were returning from a development camp in Kansas.
More than 300 responders were deployed at the site of the plane crash to search for survivors, with wind and pieces of ice in the water creating obstacles for them.
On Thursday, January 31, President Trump held a press conference to address the plane crash, saying that the country was "in mourning". Trump also accused his political rivals of hiring "mediocre" staff for air traffic control jobs.
